Annie BOURGOIS
Cinematic codes
Bibliothèque Angellier
In normal viewing we experience simultaneously a number of codes : visual, sound and the codes controlling the linking of one sound or image to another. To divide the components is arbitrary but it will help in analysis to separate them.
Mise en scène
The term derives from the French, ‘having been put into the scene’ is used to designate the visual aspects that appear within a single shot (Objects, movements, lighting, shadow, colour : in fact pro filmic event, those elements that are there before the filming starts. They may appear to have a real world existence and hence appear not to be encoded. (Early cinema rested on the notion that filming was solely the recording of reality or theatrical performance)
The concept of Mise en scène was developed by those theorists who were interested in issues of authorship in constructing the meaning of film. During the classic period of Hollywood studio, from 1920 to 1950, the director’s control was limited to the processes that were recorded during shooting. Script, editing, post dubbing, re-cut escaped his control.
Let us look now at some specific elements of mise en scène:
- Setting
In the context of studio shooting, the predominant form in the 20s and 40s,
all elements of the setting were controlled and chosen by the director. Setting
are usually perceived as a signifier of authenticity, the place where the events
are happening, they are nevertheless a constructed setting for action. This
become clear if we examine the different of look of the West in films such as
Shane, My Darling Clementine, Johnny Guitar and The Unforgiven. All these films
are recognisable as the West, yet they emphasise different kinds of settings:
wilderness, small town, large ranch. The western may be defined in terms of
the opposing focus of wilderness and civilisation, the contrasting images of
the garden and the desert, the cactus and the rose. The landscape and settings
of westerns are read against the conventions of the genre more than as representation
of a real West.
The setting can also function to place the performers. In The Cabinet of Doctor
Caligari the characters are enclosed in a two dimensional setting, with lighting
painted over a backdrop and the stage. The setting suggests danger and paranoia
which is revealed, at the end of the film, as a relocation of the interior world
inhabited by a crazy narrator. The film was a precursor of German Expressionism,
influential on German films from 1919 to 31. Its aim was to convey the crude
force of human emotion in a total cinematic experience. Leading protagonists
of German Expressionism, Lang and Murnau, move to Hollywood in the 20s and 30s
and influenced the horror films of the 30s, Tod Browning and Whale, and the
film noir of the 40s, Capra. We have noticed in recent films the predominance
of Dystopia ( future world where everything has gone wrong): Blade Runner, Ridley
Scott.
- Locations can also create their own space and meaning. (Haunting and haunted
houses)
Props
Props are devices to convey meaning.
They are definers of genre: garlic and crosses, guns and stars. The arcane paraphernalia
of conventional genres.
They can also become unique signifiers of meaning in a particular film. Ex the
lighter in Strangers on a Train with its crossed rackets signifying a number
of crossing and exchanges. It is a significant icon throughout the film.
Props can also be used to ‘anchor’ characters into particular meanings.
They may be used to clarify a meaning, they partake to the characterisation.
(props relating to family life in Godfather) (cigarettes, mirror, curtain in
Streetcar)
Costumes
It is a variant of the prop tightly connected to the characters.
Use of codified colours, change of costumes to signify change of status or evolution.
See Mildred Pierce and the transformation of Joan Crawford from housewife to
businesswoman.
Costumes may also be used to signify mismatches. A series of expectations aroused
by the costumes are subverted by the action.
Cross-dressing is a further device of mismatch: Some like it hot, Tootsie. In
the Crying Game our knowledge is at least problematic and the mismatch only
appears retrospectively.
A distinctive costume may be misread by other characters, while playing with
the spectator’s connivance with the character.
Performance and movement
Probably the richest source of mise en scène is
the performance of actors. The performer can be considered as the object of
the camera’s gaze. The body language is coded but universally understood.
Body language is a key element in the creation of a performance. See Orson Welles’s
evolution in Citizen kane.
The close-up allowed meaning to be express by slight movement, facail expressions.
Minimalist actor, Michael Caine, ably demonstrated in a Master Class what can
be conveyed by the flickering of an eye, the raising of an eyebrow or the turning
of the lip.
Finally, the star brings to the film meaning derived from his mere presence
through expectations and implied meaning.
Lighting
It is an invisible code, the lighting of a shot being off
the camera.
Whereas the early cinema relied on flat field of action, depth in the action
became soon desirable. Bazin argued that such a form of shooting was both more
realist (the shots closely resembling the capacity of the eyes to recognise
objects across a wide depth)
Camera and camera movement
The setting being ready and well lit, the next set of choice
surrounds the positioning of the camera.
Early Cinema was largely characterized by long shots. Drawing primarily from
the already existing art forms of photography and theater, the camera was held
static: placed in the ‘best seat in the stalls’, square on to the
action, with actors moving in and out of the shot as if from the wings.
Now technological developments up to the Steadicam permits great flexibility
and choice, both of movement and angle. Within the capacities of focus, the
camera is able to move anywhere from the extreme-close-up to the use of widescreen
shots limited to pairs of eyes, to the extreme long shot. The close-up has particular
place in the development of film, permitting us to ‘know intimately’
the faces of characters, hence to read their thoughts and feelings.
It is also necessary to decide on the angle of the shot and the relative height
of camera to the object being filmed: a low-angle shot looking up to the object
or high-angle shot looking down. Conventions accounts suggest that low-angle
shots imply the power of the object (usually a human figure) and a high-angle
shot its weakness. (see Citizen Kane: Kane looks down on Suzanne as she pieces
together a jigsaw puzzle; but at the end of the birds, the family is shot from
below, suggesting dominance, but, in fact, the birds are above, in the attic,
just waiting.
While the camera is normally held level, it can also be tilted to one side.
Such a shot is read as an indication of instability, either of the character
or the situation. (The third Man, Dutch shots).
While shots are classically in sharp focus, a soft focus can be used either
to enhance the romantic effect of a scene or to expose the incapacity of a character
to register the world around. (Deconstructing Harry)
Finally, the camera is able to move. The earliest moving shots were dependent
on the movement of objects- car or trains- so shots mimic the experience of
viewing. Pan and tilts appear to reproduce eye movements and are motivated by
the action. Shots can also be developed to reproduce the movements of the characters,
using rails (the tracking shot). These shots give a strong sense of place and
identity.
While these shots are perceived as naturalistic, and replicate the natural movements
of the eye, the use of the crane moves display a high degree of control by the
director: such shots involve positions and movements that are inaccessible to
us an a day-to-day basis. See in Gone with the Wind, the scene with the lying
wounded soldiers in the station. Crane shots can take us from the wide panorama
of a scene to focus in on an object. (See Marnie, her point of view from the
landing above the expansive hall to a close-up of her previous boss, Strutt,
who can expose her.) This shot reflects the sense of inevitability and powerlessness
felt by Marnie. The crane can also be used to reveal what had been hidden. (see
Halloween, end of the first sequence, the murderer is unmasked and the camera
cranes back)
Editing
Let us look at the combination of shots which construct
a film flowing over time. Editing, or the joining of strips of film is specific
to cinema, the shots can be used in photography, hence it has been seen as the
essence of films.
Kuleshov engaged in a number of experiments and proved that adept editing could
create alternative reading of the same facial expression.
Historically, the first editing was between scenes, with individual extreme
long shots recording a self-contained sequence at a particular time and place,
followed by a cut to black. This device establishing a narrative flow drew on
the theatrical black-out and could easily be understood. Then, a vocabulary
of linking devices was invented by Griffith. In particular, this method involved
the distinction between slower devices: the fade to and from black, and the
dissolve between the image and the cut. While the fade implied a change of scene
and time, the cut was used within a scene, or in the case of cross-cut editing,
signified that two events although separated by space were happening simultaneously.
This device was used by Griffith to build up suspense. Other devices, such as
the wipe, the push off and the turn over have been reduced to comic effects.
French New Wave used the dissolve to suggest passing time and dissolve to white
to draw attention on the uncertain nature of the narrative.
While the linking devices described above signify to the viewer the discontinuity
of the action- the change of space and time- the major development in editing
has been to minimise the sense of disruption. The rules of continuity editing
mean to produce a system to tell a story in such a way as to set out the action
in space and time while it remains unobtrusive. The storytelling should not
draw attention to itself or to the apparatus of cinema, the strategies appear
transparent.
These rules may be summarized as follows: first an establishing shot, then a
long shot which enable the spectators to orientate themselves. All subsequent
shots are read within this space. A master shot can be reintroduced to reestablish
the space or show significant movements of the characters.
The 180° rule involves an imaginary line along the action of the scene.
The rule dictates that this line should be clearly established and that consecutive
shots should not be taken from opposite side of the line. Hence a common background
space (implicit or explicit) and a clarity of direction of movement.
An extension of this principle is the ‘eye-line match’. A shot of
a scene looking at something off –screen is followed by the object or
person being looked at.
The 30° rule proposes that a successive shot on the same area involves at
least a 30° change of angle, or a substantial change of viewpoint. It involves
a reorientation but the viewer finds his bearings.
Finally, the movement of actors and the reframing of the camera is so arranged
and planned that the movement of the camera does not draw attention to itself.
This involves the cut on action, so that the cut anticipates the movement to
be made , such as a long shot of a character standing up or a cut to the person
talking. The cut appears to be motivated by the need to tell the story.
This style of editing is integral to the Hollywood classical realist text, a
film that “effaces all signs of the text’s production and the achievement
of an invisibility of process”. ( Even if they are naturally difficult
to notice we may find good illustrations of this principle in Maltese Falcon)
However, we are aware of these conventions when they are broken or subverted.
It is not unusual nowadays to commence a sequence with a close-up. The 180°
rule is forcibly broken in Stagecoach as the Indians attack the coach, seemingly
riding from both sides. Sometimes the breaking of this line suggests an impossible
relationship or the viewer’s incapacity to ‘place’ himself
emotionally. The jump-cut was used by Godard in A Bout de Souffle to produce
ellipsis. (the jump-cut draws attention to the selection that has taken place)
While continuity editing has dominated classic narratives, other strategies
have been used. The ‘montage sequence’ entailed a number of shots
to demonstrate a process of change. In Citizen Kane, the disintegration of the
marriage, in The Godfather, the baptism of Michael takes place while a sequence
of killing occurs in different locations but with the same soundtrack of the
church service.
An alternative form of editing is the ‘non-diegetic insert’ which
involves a symbolic shot not involved with the time and place of the narrative
to comment on or express the action in some alternative ways. See Eisenstein’s
films. In Hollywood, such coded inserts proved useful to circumscribe censorship.
(North by Northwest, the train entering the tunnel)
The cutting of film stock can also be expressive in itself. Rapid or slow cutting
can convey meaning in itself. The shower scene in Psycho exemplifies the use
of rapid and highly fragmented images to present a climactic moment.
Sound
The final element in constructing the ‘image’
of a film is the soundtrack. (after 1927) It has been argued that the speed
of this innovation arose from a need for a realistic narrative. Sounds are diegetic.
However, soundtracks are equally ‘sound images’, constructed to
make meaning.
Sound can be used to reinforce the continuity of the action, it tends to assert
the ‘reality status’ of the images. See in Mean Streets, Charlie
on the stage with an exotic dancer: on subsequent viewing we understand that
it was his fantasy, yet the continuous soundtrack had led us to believe that
it was actually happening..
Sound has also a continuity role in establishing links across the scenes. Orson
Welles, in Citizen Kane used sound to bridge between sequences (‘Merry
Christmas’) (See the problematic voice Marion hears in Psycho).
Sound can also be used to direct us into the past through the use of the voiceover
as in Mildred Pierce, Sunset Boulevard, Double Indemnity. Voice over are a useful
device to accelerate story telling.
The use of non diegetic music: to inform the audience of appropriate emotional
responses or enhance them. The emotional pull of music and its high level of
connotative meaning allow these processes to operate subliminally. The impact
of Psycho can be attributed to Herrmann’s music. With the stress on the
surface reality of the classic realist film, music appears to give us direct
access to the emotions of the characters.
Music also plays the role of ‘confirming’ the emotional response
of the spectator, seemingly leading us to a particular way of seeing a sequence.
It anchors meaning, eliminating ambiguities of response. It may be a rhythmic
device to inform the pace of the cutting.
Sound effects are normally perceived as part of the narrative realism, authenticating
the images and informing the narrative attention. They evoke ‘mood’.
They establish the environment.
Music may also be used to identify characters (themes associated with characters:
Dr Zhivago, Gone with the Wind, Once upon a Time in the West.
Narrative
Films have a primary function of telling a story.
It may be useful to distinguish between the story that is represented and the
representation of it that is perceived by the spectator. The story is the fabula
which can be summarised but it is not the narrative of the film itself. The
distinction may introduce the difference between narrative and narration.
A second term that may be used is plot. It gives the events a logic, in a causal
way. Narrative develops on the basis of a chain of cause and effect. Besides
it is assumed that all elements make sense or are clues. In the Usual Suspects
the pleasure consists in determining what is a clue and what is a red herring.
In North by Northwest Roger Thornhill’s matchbox bears the initials ROT
(O for nothing, signifying a man with no center. Later, the matchbox will be
used to signal his presence in the villain’s house. Film-goers are used
to anticipate and expect the return of objects and to recognise the causal links.
The plot constructs also the narrative in a particular temporal order with specific
spatial references. Narrative involves the spectator operating on the tension
between his expectations of likely outcome and anticipation and the capacity
to frustrate or surprise.
Todorov sees the start of a narrative as a point of stable equilibrium where
everything is quiet normal and satisfied. This stability is disrupted resulting
in a state of disequilibrium. Equilibrium must be re created by actions. This
reaction changes the world and the final situation is not the initial situation
restored. Horror films are characterised by immediate disruptions. Vertigo begins
with a particularly disruptive act.
Proppean analysis can also be quite useful.
Assignments Consider any mainstream Hollywood films with
which you are familiar:
1. What is the initial state of equilibrium, how is it disrupted and how is
it resolved?
2. Try to identify how individual characters fit into Propp’s typology
of hero, villain, princess?
3. List the opposition that exist within the film
4. To what extent can the film be considered ‘realist’?
Alternative Narratives.
Some films challenge or subvert the conventions of mainstream cinema. This tradition
of counter cinema was exemplified by Godard. These are the oppositions at work:
Narrative transitivity vs narrative intransitivity.
Identification vs estrangement.
Transparency vs foregrounding
Simple vs multiple diegesis.
Closure vs aperture.
Pleasurable vs unpleasurable, non-escapist